Numbers 9:15-23 tells an interesting aspect of how God guided his people in the wastelands of Saudi Arabia. Just after the Tent of Meeting, or Tabernacle, was set up, a pillar of cloud descended on it and hovered above it all the time. When the people were to move on, the pillar lifted and moved. At night the pillar became what looked like fire. How cool is that?
A fiery pillar lit the camp at night and a cloud to protect from the desert sun during the day! No worries about UV rays for this group.
The end of the chapter tells how the people moved when the cloud moved and stayed put whenever it didn't. At times it stayed a day at other times a year. Whatever the case, the people moved when the cloud did. This chapter has a couple of time references. The people had been at Sinai for a year when the cloud moved for the first time.
Wouldn't that be handy? This colossal cloud tells you what to do and where to go, and it is always there leading the way! For example, through our years in Brazil, Dawn and I have moved eleven times in twenty-two years, not counting our move to Brazil and the three times we spent a year in the States. Ugh! Fifteen times in twenty-four years is a lot for non-military people. In all of those years, we never had a cloud leading the way. We wanted one, but it never showed up. The children of Israel didn't know where they were going, but they had the cloud. We didn't know where we were going either. So how did we know where to go? That is a story for another time.
The point of this text is that God guides. The Israelites didn't need to wonder about where and when to move; they could all see that it was time by how the cloud stood still or moved. We, too, have God's guidance daily in his word. He tells us what he wants from us, and he teaches us to trust his guidance.
The Word of God is right there on your coffee table. Pick it up and look for God to lead.
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